Best Lawyer: James Egan

Get a DUI? James Egan is your man. Get punched in the face by a raging cop? Once again, James Egan is your man. Having built his Pioneer Square business defending alleged drunk drivers, more recently Egan has branched out, launching a social-justice onslaught that’s been a perpetual thorn in the sides of the Seattle Police Department and the City Attorney’s Office. Almost always, it starts with a police dash-cam video—which Egan fights tooth and nail to get amid Seattle’s backwards rules and regulations surrounding footage that’s supposed to be public information. Over the past year he’s helped alleged jaywalker Donald Fuller get justice (by twisting the city’s arm into vacating a bogus obstruction conviction) and brought to light video of SPD officer Eric Faust decking hit-and-run suspect Leo Etherly in the face. While some have questioned Egan’s motives, the fact remains that his work has brought to light questionable police work that would have likely gone unnoticed and uncorrected without him.